View Single Post
Old 01-04-2015, 03:16 PM   #22 (permalink)
Rmplmnz
Banana Patch Attendent
 
Rmplmnz's Avatar
 
Location: Tampa, FL
Zone: 10
Name: Rmplmnz
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 2,448
BananaBucks : 144,787
Feedback: 40 / 100%
Said "Thanks" 2,249 Times
Was Thanked 2,348 Times in 636 Posts
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 36 Times
Thumbs up Re: Advantages of not relying on fertilizers

Quote:
Originally Posted by PR-Giants View Post
I wish you would post more often.




Maybe I'm wrong, but that was what I was taught as a child growing up on a farm in the 1960's.

I just did a search and this was on top of the page, but I'll read some other ones later.

Soil
The Tropical Rain Forest
The lushness of the jungle biome is somewhat illusory. While productivity is high, the soils themselves tend to be of very poor quality. Because of the high rainfall, nutrients are quickly washed out of the topsoil unless they are incorporated in the forest plants. As plant and animal debris falls to the ground, it is quickly decomposed because of the warmth and moisture there. Thus minerals are found mainly in the forest plants, not in the soil. When the plants are removed and cultivation attempted, the soils quickly lose fertility.
The situation is made worse by the lack of humus (the topsoil may be no thicker than 2 in. [= 5 cm]) and the high iron and aluminum content of most of these soils. Once exposed to the sun, these lateritic soils soon bake into a bricklike material that cannot be cultivated.


The Temperate Deciduous Forest

These regions receive 75–100 cm or more of precipitation each year. Enough water falls on the soil so that much of it passes down to the water table. As it does so, it carries minerals with it. Such soils tend to be acidic and of low and (if unattended) diminishing fertility. Only by regular fertilization and liming (to restore calcium and raise pH) can productive agriculture be carried out in them. In the U.S., the soils east of the Appalachian Mountains tend to be of this sort.

Thanks, that is high praise coming from you! I am amazed by your pics. A friend once told me "You have a maintenance free yard". I can only only speculate that this is because we do not have any grass...lol.

I totally get your reference to growing up and the soils having low fertility. I guess the big difference for us is the amount of leaves we bring in (literally over 2 tons a year). Someone once told me the leaves are nutrient dense as they pull from deep in the roots/soil. Additionally, they degrade very slowly. I thought it was funny within the forest floor definition there was reference to fungi. There is always some strange mushroom/fungi popping up in the garden.

I will look for a "before pic" of the garden (sandy mess) and append this post later.
Rmplmnz is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To Rmplmnz
Said thanks: